Mobile Media Device User Interface

ABSTRACT

A mobile media device user interface is described. In one or more implementations, output of a plurality of audio content is monitored by a mobile media device. Each of the audio content was received via a respective one of a plurality of broadcast channels by the mobile media device. A user interface is displayed on a display device of the mobile media device, the user interface describing each of the plurality of audio content and the respective broadcast channel from which the audio content was received.

PRIORITY APPLICATION

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. Section 120 as acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/491,045, filed Jun.24, 2009, and entitled “Mobile Media Device User Interface,” the entiredisclosures of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Mobile media devices may be configured in a variety of different ways tooutput content from a variety of different sources. For example, amobile media device may be configured as a handheld music player thatmay receive content wirelessly via a plurality of networks, such as viaa broadcast network (e.g., a one-way communication channel such as FMradio) and a two-way network (e.g., that provides access to theInternet). However, it may be difficult for a user to determine what wasrecently played by the mobile media device by these different sources.

For example, a user may listen to a variety of different channels of abroadcast network, e.g., different FM radio stations. While audiocontent (e.g., a song) is being played, a display device of the mobilemedia device may output information that describes what is currentlybeing played, e.g., a song title and artist. Once the song is done beingplayed, however, the user is not able to access the information using aconventional mobile media device. Therefore, the user may be forced torely solely on the user's own recollection to remember songs ofinterest.

SUMMARY

A mobile media device user interface is described. In one or moreimplementations, output of a plurality of audio content is monitored bya mobile media device. Each of the audio content was received via arespective one of a plurality of broadcast channels by the mobile mediadevice. A user interface is displayed on a display device of the mobilemedia device, the user interface describing each of the plurality ofaudio content and the respective broadcast channel from which the audiocontent was received.

In one or more implementations, one or more computer-readable storagecomprise instructions that are executable by a mobile media device tooutput a user interface that describes a plurality of content receivedvia a broadcast and output by the mobile media device. The userinterface has a plurality of options to purchase the plurality ofcontent for download.

In one or more implementations, a mobile media device includes a displaydevice and one or more modules. The one or more modules are configuredto output a plurality of audio content that have been receivedwirelessly via one or more broadcast channels. A user interface isdisplayed on the display device that includes one or more of the audiocontent that is an advertisement.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different instances in thedescription and the figures may indicate similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment 100 in an exampleimplementation that is operable to employ user interface generationtechniques described herein.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a system in an example implementationshowing a mobile media device of FIG. 1 as configuring a user interfaceto purchase audio content.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a system in an example implementation thatis configured to authenticate a user to purchase audio content.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which output of a plurality of audio content by amobile media device is monitored and a user interface is displayed thatdescribes the audio content.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which a description of an advertisement is includedwith descriptions of other audio content that was output a mobile mediadevice.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which metadata is cached while the mobile media deviceof FIG. 1 is in a low-power mode.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

A mobile media device (e.g., a portable music player) may output audiocontent that was obtained from a variety of different sources, such asvia a broadcast (e.g., AM, FM, or Satellite radio), via a two-waynetwork (e.g., a stream provided by a website that is accessible via theInternet), and so on. Traditional techniques that were used to describethis content, however, were limited to what was currently being outputby the mobile media device. For example, a traditional radio (e.g., incompliance with FM, and/or Satellite) may display a title and artist ofa song that is currently being output. Once the output of the song hascompleted (e.g., the song has been played), however, conventionaldisplay techniques did not permit a user to determine what songs (orother audio content) was recently played.

A user interface for a mobile media device is described. In animplementation, the user interface is configured to describe audiocontent that was output by the mobile media device. For example, a usermay interact with the mobile media device to navigate between broadcastchannels (e.g., frequencies in FM radio) and output audio content (e.g.,songs) from the channels. The mobile media device in this implementationis configured to store metadata that is streamed with and describes theaudio content, even if the mobile media device is sequentially tuned toa variety of different broadcast channels. The metadata may then beoutput in a user interface to describe the audio content that was outputby the mobile media device.

The user interface (and the metadata contained therein) may be leveragedin a variety of ways. For example, the user interface may be configuredto provide a link to a website to purchase audio content that wasrecently played by the mobile media device. In another example, the userinterface may be configured to include descriptions of audio contentconfigured as advertisements that were broadcast with other audiocontent, e.g., songs. The description of the advertisements may also beconfigured to navigate to a corresponding website. Thus, in theseexamples information that describes broadcast content received by themobile media device may be leveraged to obtain additional informationfrom a two-way network, e.g., via the Internet. A variety of otherexamples are also contemplated, further discussion of which may be foundin relation to the following sections.

In the following discussion, a mobile media device is described that mayreceive audio content wirelessly from a variety of different sources.However, it should be readily apparent that the following discussion isnot to be limited to a mobile media device, audio content, or wirelesscommunication. Accordingly, a variety of different devices may employthe techniques described herein without departing from the spirit andscope thereof, such as other computers such as desktop PCs, netbooks,wireless phones, personal digital assistants, and so on.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment 100 in an exampleimplementation that is operable to employ user interface generationtechniques described herein. The illustrated environment 100 includes abroadcast content provider 102 that is communicatively coupled to amobile media device 104 via a wireless connection 106 to receive abroadcast of audio content 108. The mobile media device 104 may beconfigured in a variety of ways. For example, a communication module 110of the media device 104 may include radio functionality to receive afrequency modulated (FM) signal, a signal from a satellite (e.g.,Satellite radio), and so on. Thus, in this example the wirelessconnection 106 is a “one-way” connection from the broadcast contentprovider 102 that may broadcast to a plurality of mobile media device,e.g., the mobile media device 104.

Likewise, the broadcast content provider 102 may be configured in avariety of ways. For example, the broadcast content provider 102 may beconfigured as an FM radio station that broadcasts the audio content 108using an FM signal as described above. The broadcast content provider102 may also be configured as a satellite radio provider that broadcaststhe audio content 108 via the wireless connection 106 using a satellitefor direct receipt by the mobile media device 104. A variety of otherexamples are also contemplated, such as configuration for broadcast ofaudio content 108 in compliance with HD radio techniques, AM radiotechniques, and so on.

The communication module 110 is further illustrated as including a userinterface module 112. The user interface module 112 is representative offunctionality of the mobile media device 104 to generate and maintain auser interface 114 for display on a display device 116 of the mobilemedia device 104. The user interface 114 may be configured in a varietyof ways, such as to include a list of recently played content asillustrated in FIG. 1.

For example, the broadcast content provider 102 may broadcast the audiocontent 108 via the wireless connection to the mobile media device 104,as well as other mobile media devices. The audio content 108 isillustrated as including metadata 118 that describes and is streamedwith the audio content 108. For example, the metadata 118 may include atitle, artist, album name, genre, contain links to a network site (e.g.,an ecommerce website to purchase like content, a fan website, etc), abroadcast time, and so on.

The user interface module 112 of the communication module 110 may thenparse the received broadcast to remove the metadata 118 and store it, anexample of which is illustrated as metadata 120 stored in storage 122(e.g., persistent memory) of the mobile media device 104. The userinterface module 112 may then leverage the metadata 120 to generate theuser interface 114.

As illustrated in the environment 100 of FIG. 1, for instance, the userinterface describes a source of the broadcast (e.g., KNND 107.7 FM), atitle (e.g., Hero of War), an artist (e.g., Rise Against), and an album(e.g., Appeal to Reason). Further, the user interface describes audiocontent received via a variety of different sources, which areillustrated as 107.7 FM and Satellite Radio 145. In this way, the userinterface 114 may summarize navigation that is performed from broadcastcontent provider to broadcast content provider 102 in a single screen inthe user interface 114. The description of the audio content that isoutput by the mobile media device 104 may be leveraged in a variety ofways, an example of which may be found in relation to the followingfigure.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a system 200 in an example implementationshowing the mobile media device 102 of FIG. 1 as configuring the userinterface 114 to purchase audio content. The system 200 includes firstand second instances 202, 204 of the mobile media device 104. In thefirst instance 202, the mobile media device 104 is illustrated asreceiving the audio content 108 from the broadcast content provider 102as described in FIG. 1. Thus, in the first instance 106 the audiocontent 108 is received from the broadcast content provider 102 via aone-way network.

The audio content 108 includes metadata 118 that is used by the mobilemedia device 104 to generate the user interface 114 that includesdescriptions of the audio content 108. In the illustrated instance theaudio content 108 is described in an order that follows an order inwhich the audio content 108 was output. A variety of other examples arealso contemplated, such as displayed in groups arranged by broadcaster,and so on. In an implementation, at least a portion of the descriptionsof the audio content 108 in the user interface 114 are selectable (e.g.,via a cursor control device 206 to select a title shown in bold) toinitiate an operation to purchase the audio content 108.

As shown in the second instance 204, the user interface 114 outputs anoption that is selectable to cause the audio content 108 to bepurchased. For example, the communication module 110 of the mobile mediadevice 104 may include functionality to communicate via a two-waynetwork, which is illustrated as network 208 in FIG. 2. The network 208may be configured in a variety of ways, such as to include a wide areanetwork (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless network, a publictelephone network, an intranet, and so on. Further, although a singlenetwork 208 is shown, the network 108 may be configured to includemultiple networks. The network 208, for instance, may include a wirelesstelephone network that provides access to the Internet. A variety ofother examples are also contemplated.

Once the option is selected (e.g., by selecting “yes” in the userinterface 114 using the cursor control device 206), the user interface114 may be configured to provide navigation to a content provider 210via the network 208 to purchase the audio content 108 that was describedin the user interface 114. For example, the communication module 110 mayinclude browser functionality to navigate to a website maintained by thecontent provider 210 to purchase content.

Thus, in the illustrated system 200 the mobile media device 114 outputsaudio content 108 that was received via a one-way network (e.g., an FMsignal, satellite signal, HD radio signal, and so on). Descriptions ofthe audio content 108 are then leveraged to provide an option topurchase the audio content 108 via a two-way network, e.g., via accessto a two-way network such as when the mobile media device 102 includestelephone functionality. The audio content 108 may be purchased in avariety of ways, further discussion of which may be found in relation tothe following figure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a system 300 in an example implementation that isconfigured to authenticate a user to purchase audio content 108. Asbefore, the audio content 108 is originally received from a broadcastcontent provider 102. In order to purchase the audio content from thecontent provider 210, a user of the mobile media device 104 is firstauthenticated by an authentication service 302.

As illustrated, the user interface 114 may be configured to acceptcredentials from the user, examples of which include a user name andpassword. The credentials may then be communicated via the network 208to the authentication service 302 for comparison with credentials of anaccount 304. If authenticated, a token may be passed back to the mobilemedia device 104 that is usable to access a plurality of websiteswithout reentering the credentials. Thus, the token may be used by themobile media device 104 to access the content provider 210 (and moreparticularly a website maintained by the content provider 210) topurchase the audio content 108. In an implementation, the purchase mayalso be made in conjunction with the authentication service 302, e.g.,by obtaining account information, charging the account 304, and so on.

Generally, any of the functions described herein can be implementedusing software, firmware, hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manualprocessing, or a combination of these implementations. The terms“module,” “functionality,” and “logic” as used herein generallyrepresent software, firmware, hardware, or a combination thereof In thecase of a software implementation, the module, functionality, or logicrepresents program code that performs specified tasks when executed on aprocessor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). The program code can be stored in one ormore computer readable memory devices. The features of the userinterface techniques described below are platform-independent, meaningthat the techniques may be implemented on a variety of commercialcomputing platforms having a variety of processors.

Example Procedures

The following discussion describes user interface techniques that may beimplemented utilizing the previously described systems and devices.Aspects of each of the procedures may be implemented in hardware,firmware, software, or a combination thereof. The procedures are shownas a set of blocks that specify operations performed by one or moredevices and are not necessarily limited to the orders shown forperforming the operations by the respective blocks. In portions of thefollowing discussion, reference will be made to the environment 100 ofFIG. 1 and the systems 200, 300 of FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 4 depicts a procedure 400 in an example implementation in whichoutput of a plurality of audio content by a mobile media device ismonitored and a user interface is displayed that describes the audiocontent. Output of a plurality of audio content by a mobile media deviceis monitored, in which each of the audio content is received via arespective one of a plurality of broadcast channels (block 402). Forexample, the broadcast channels may correspond to frequencies of an FMradio network, channels of a broadcast received from a satellite, and soon. Therefore, the audio content that is output by the mobile mediadevice 104 may be obtained from a variety of different sources using avariety of different techniques.

Data is collected that describes the plurality of audio content (block404). Continuing with the previous example, a user may interact with themobile media player 104 to navigate between a plurality of broadcastchannels e.g., radio frequencies, satellite channels, and so on.Accordingly, metadata 118 that is broadcast along with the audio content108 may be collected during this navigation. The data (e.g., metadata118) is then stored by the mobile media device (block 406), e.g., tomemory or other computer-readable medium.

The user interface is displayed on a display device of the mobile mediadevice, the user interface describing each of the plurality of audiocontent and the respective broadcast channel from which the audiocontent was received (block 408). As shown in FIG. 1, for instance, theuser interface 114 describes a broadcast channel used to receive theaudio content (e.g., KNND 107.7 FM) and also describes the audiocontent, e.g., a title “Hero of War,” an artist “Rise Against,” and analbum “Appeal to Reason.”

A selection is received of a portion of the user interface thatdescribes a particular one of the audio content (block 410). The user,for instance, may interact with the cursor control device 206 of themobile media device 104 to select a title or other portion of theinformation that describes the audio content 108, e.g., an iconincluding album art. Responsive to the selection, an operation isinitiated to purchase the particular audio content via a networkconnection (block 412). As previously described in relation to FIGS. 2and 3, for instance, a user may use the mobile media device 104 tonavigate to a website via a two-way network (e.g., the Internet) topurchase content that was originally received via a one-way network. Thepurchased content may then be downloaded to the mobile media deviceand/or another device, such as a home computer.

FIG. 5 depicts a procedure 500 in an example implementation in which adescription of an advertisement is included with descriptions of otheraudio content that was output a mobile media device. A plurality ofaudio content is output that has been received wirelessly via one ormore broadcast channels (block 502). Metadata broadcast with theplurality of content is stored (block 504). These techniques may beperformed as previously described in relation to FIG. 4.

A user interface is displayed on a display device of a mobile mediadevice, the user interface including one or more of the audio contentthat is an advertisement (block 506). For example, the audio content 108broadcast to the mobile media device 104 may also include advertisementsfor goods or services. A description of the advertisements may also beincluded in the user interface 114, e.g., that identifies the good orservice advertised (a brand name).

A selection is received via the user interface to navigate to arepresented advertisement (block 508) and navigation is performed to theadvertisement via a two-way network (block 510). The metadata 118 thatwas streamed with the audio content 108 that is an advertisement, forinstance, may include a network address (URL) to a site (e.g., website)that includes additional information that relates to the advertisement.A variety of different information may be included at the site, such asthe advertisement itself, a way to purchase the goods or servicesrepresented in the advertisement (e.g., via an ecommerce website),additional product literature, and so on. Therefore, two-wayfunctionality of the mobile media device 104 included in thecommunication module 110 may be used to access the Internet in thisexample to further leverage advertisements received via a broadcast. Avariety of other examples are also contemplated.

FIG. 6 depicts a procedure 600 in an example implementation in whichmetadata is cached while the mobile media device 104 is in a low-powermode. Entry into a low-power mode is initiated by a mobile media device(block 602). In this example, the communication module 110 of the mobilemedia device 104 is configured to cause the mobile media device 104 toenter a low-power mode in which power consumption by one or morecomponents of the device is lessened. For example, the mobile mediadevice 104 may receive FM broadcasts and “time out” after a definedamount of time has passed. In response, a display device 116 of themobile media device 104 may be “turned off” to conserve power.

Even though the mobile media device is in the low-power mode, however,metadata 118 broadcast with the audio content 108 may be cached instorage 122 of the device as metadata 120 (block 606). Once anindication is received to exit the low-power mode (block 608), a userinterface 114 is displayed on the display device 116 that includes atleast a portion of the cached metadata (block 610). For example, aninput may be received via a button of the mobile media device 104 to“wake up” the device, e.g., pressing the power button or other buttonsof the device. Therefore, in this way the metadata 118 may be cached andused when appropriate yet still conserve resources of the mobile mediadevice 104.

Conclusion

Although the invention has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specificfeatures and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing theclaimed invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, via a mobilemedia device, a plurality of audio content from a plurality of channelsobtained from a variety of content providers; monitoring output of theplurality of audio content by the mobile media device; and displaying ina user interface on a display device of the mobile media device, foreach of the plurality of audio content that was previously output, adescription of the previously output audio content, a description of theparticular channel of the plurality of channels from which thepreviously output audio content was received, and a description of theparticular content provider from which the particular channel wasobtained.
 2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein a portion of theuser interface that describes a particular said audio content isselectable to initiate an operation to purchase the particular saidaudio content via a network connection.
 3. A method as described inclaim 2, wherein the particular said audio content once purchased isdownloadable by another media device.
 4. A method as described in claim2, wherein the operation includes authenticating a user of the mobilemedia device using an authentication service.
 5. A method as describedin claim 4, wherein the authentication of the user by the authenticationservice provides access to a plurality of websites, at least one ofwhich is configured to provide the particular said audio content forpurchase.
 6. A method as described in claim 4, wherein theauthentication of the user by the authentication service is performedautomatically and without user intervention using a token that is storedon the mobile media device.
 7. A method as described in claim 1, whereina first one of the plurality of channels is received using frequencymodulation (FM) and a second one of the plurality of channels isreceived via satellite.
 8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein theuser interface describes each of the plurality of audio content usingmetadata received with respective said audio content.
 9. A method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the user interface describes the pluralityof audio content in reverse chronological order of when each of theplurality of audio content was output, respectively.
 10. A mobile mediadevice comprising: a display device; and one or more modules configuredto perform operations comprising: receiving wirelessly, via the mobilemedia device, a plurality of audio content from a plurality of channelsobtained from a variety of sources; outputting the plurality of audiocontent that has been wirelessly received via the plurality of channelsobtained from the variety of sources; and displaying a user interface ina single screen on the display device that includes one or more of theaudio content that is an advertisement, the user interface configured todisplay a summary of user navigation among each of one or more channelsof the plurality of channels by describing for each said audio content,the audio content, a particular channel of the one or more channelsassociated with the audio content, and a particular one of the varietyof sources that provided the audio content.
 11. The mobile media deviceas described in claim 10, wherein: the one or more modules areconfigured to receive the one or more of the audio content that is anadvertisement wirelessly via a one-way broadcast; and the description ofthe advertisement is selectable in the user interface to navigate to theadvertisement that is accessible by the one or more modules via atwo-way network connection.
 12. The mobile media device as described inclaim 11, wherein the two-way network connection provides an Internetconnection and the one-way broadcast is received via a radio broadcastin compliance with frequency modulation (FM).
 13. The mobile mediadevice as described in claim 11, wherein the description of theadvertisement in the user interface includes metadata that was receivedwith the advertisement.
 14. The mobile media device as described inclaim 10, wherein the description of the advertisement is selectable inthe user interface to navigate to the advertisement via an Internetconnection to purchase a good or service that pertains to theadvertisement.
 15. One or more computer-readable storage comprisinginstructions that are executable by a mobile media device to output auser interface that describes a plurality of content received via aplurality of channels from a plurality of sources and output by themobile media device, the user interface having one or more options topurchase the plurality of content for download, the user interfaceconfigured to provide a summary of user-navigation by describing each ofthe plurality of channels and from which of the plurality of sources thecontent was received from, each associated with a respective one of aplurality of content described in the user interface in a single screenand output by the mobile media device.
 16. The one or morecomputer-readable storage as described in claim 15, wherein the mobilemedia device is installed in a vehicle.
 17. The one or morecomputer-readable storage as described in claim 15, wherein theplurality of sources includes a one-way broadcast and a two-way networkconnection, and the plurality of content includes audio content that wasreceived via an FM broadcast and audio content that was received via asatellite broadcast.
 18. The one or more computer-readable storage asdescribed in claim 15, wherein the user interface describes theplurality of content in reverse chronological order of when each of theplurality of audio content was output, respectively, by the mobile mediadevice.
 19. The one or more computer-readable storage as described inclaim 15, wherein the user interface describes the plurality of contentin groups arranged by source.
 20. The one or more computer-readablestorage as described in claim 15, wherein the user interface has one ormore options to purchase the plurality of content for download to andlocal storage by the mobile media device.